The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-05-07
Fashionable Society.
FNShIOMADIe SOCIety.
A Young Philadelphia Lawyer on Amer.
lean Upper Tendon.

LancoM Il. Eyre, an Me fhHdoetphaG 1imeS.
Everybody yearns to get into the
higher circle and in the highest circle
there is constant fdgeting and fussing,
which can only be appeased by constant
excitement over nothing. Of all the
sad pictures of our modern life none is
sadder than the spectacle of self-made
man trying to get into "society." Now
at last he begins to make fool of him
self, willing to be sneered at and snub-
bed, and when he gets into society he
clutches the apple and it crumbles to
ashes. Too late he learns that he was
hunting only shadow. His life ends
in an anti-climax. He sinks into his
fashionable grave, either a cynic or a
snob. One of the bad results of our So
cial system is that in land whose citi-
zens are supposed to be not only free,
but equal, there is spirit of caste al
most as aristocratic as that of India or
Japan. Of course there must be noun
tains and hills and flats, but how is it
that society is full of flats and that some
of our grandest mountains are hidden
in the shadow of social cloud? We
have caste which is a mockery and a
tumble. We hear of the upper ten, or
tenderloin, the second and third chop,
the fourth cut, the upper middle rib, the
middle rib and the stewing beef. But
how are the divisions made? 1t would
be hard to say. The fashionable people
say that it requires gentility to enter
their set. No, it requires genteel var
nish spread thinly over the pine. Does
any one seriously proclaim that real re-
fnement is mark of fashionable socie-
ty? Never did boorish impudence run
more wildly rampant than it does in our
polite circles. A noisy, jeering crowd
of unmannerly people take possession
begun, drowning the voices on the stage
with its talk and laughter until well-mer-
tied Kisses are leveled at the offenders,
and the actress sternly asks for silence.
At ultra fashionable entertainments some
of the men get so drunk that they can
scarcely stand up. The young women
under the influence of supper and ex-
citement, are led away from their better
purpose and influenced by lot of young
rakes and roisterers into permitting
things to be said, and sometimes done,
which, if they could remember them af-
terwards, would make their faces Grim
son with shame. Nowhere are men more
piggish than at fashionable suppers. At
one of our great balls the gentlemen
were requested by printed notice to
let the ladies have the first chance at the
supper and that "suficient supper would
be served until all were satisfied" Fash
ionable youths become so wild with ex-
citement that they tear champagne bot
ties from the hands of walters, break the
necks of bottles, empty them at round
and throw them under the table in a
heap. Is it any wonder that our hearts
should sicken at these sights and that
our lips should cry out: elbow long,
oh Lord, how long!"
Shall these be our leaders and masters
| in our daily social lives? Everywhere
there is an aping after false gentility ;
to be called "ladies and gentlemen, !"
but not to act like them; to be called
salesladies, salesgentlemen. Some day
we will have scrub ladies, police gentle
men. One of the greatest charms of a
social intercourse is rightly conducted
conversation. The secret is to know
when to listen. Conversation in society
is merely noise made with many tongues.
Nobody listens or wants to listen.-
When I have gone into ball room or
kettle-drum have felt like shouting out,
at the risk of being locked up as luna
tic, "Stop your Internal grinnlng and
chatting" A friend of mine visited
Kirkbride's once and went into large
room where lot of female patients were
Cabling like the Tower of Babel. He
thought to himself, 'This is very ia
miliar sound where have often heard
it before?" And sure enough, he shut
his eyes and could easily imagine that
he was at fashionable entertainment
The society men are the most dull
and vacant people that ever saw, and
getting more SO every day. The bes,
people are being driven more and more
into social exile. Whenever l hear {
society man trying hard to be entertain
ing think of the fable of the dude who
said facetiously to jackass: "People
say that we are related to each other. >
"No," exclaimed the jackass, indignant
ly, "not exactly. For while you are
often called a jackass, no one has eve
had the cheek to call me dude. >" The
women are naturally brighter. Mos
young girls enter society intending tt
| be sensible and earnest. But they grad
ually find that sense and earnestness ART
bad form in good society, and soon be
come as silly and languid as the rest.
But we see instances of manhood anC
womanhood that are sublime. Wher
the Oregon was sinking in New Yorl
harbor some of the married women pu
their children in the boat, kissed then
goodbye, as they believed, forever, ant
turned to their husbands, saying
"We will not go; we will stay with yo'
until the end" These wives and moth
ers would have found no custom in Soci
ETY. to encourage them in such unselfisl
devotion. The social system separate
the husband from the wife more than al
other influences put together. AM
those poor women know it best wb
laugh at the idea the loudest. CrusI